Misplaced sympathy, when history is a mystery
In this week’s parshah, the Jews engage in diplomacy and ask Sichon the King of the Amorites for safe passage through his land. He refuses, gathers his army to destroy the Jews and ends up being conquered.
There is a parallel story in Judges, this week’s Haftorah section. A few hundred years after our parshah, the Judge Yiftach again engages in diplomacy and asks the Amorites for peaceful coexistence. The Amorites respond by accusing the Jews of taking the land away from them hundreds of years earlier (this week’s parshah).
Only a few hundred years after the initial altercation with the Amorites, do they attempt to distort history and accuse the Jewish people of instigating the fight. The contemporary parallel story is the Six-Day War.
This month is the anniversary of a modern day miracle.
Surrounded on all sides and facing annihilation, Israel was heavily outnumbered and outgunned. By the end of the week Israel had tripled the size of its borders. This was the Six-Day War.
In this week’s parshah the Jews engaged in diplomacy and then are attacked by a bordering nation who they then conquer in a fight for survival. Then several year’s later are accused of taking the land away from this nation. What happened in this week’s parshah and haftorah is an exact parallel of what happened in the Six -Day War.
In this week’s parshah, the Jews engage in diplomacy and ask Sichon the King of the Amorites for safe passage through his land. He refuses, gathers his army to destroy the Jews and ends up being conquered.
There is a parallel story in Judges, this week’s Haftorah section. A few hundred years after our parshah, the Judge Yiftach again engages in diplomacy and asks the Amorites for peaceful coexistence. The Amorites respond by accusing the Jews of taking the land away from them hundreds of years earlier (this week’s parshah).
Only a few hundred years after the initial altercation with the Amorites, do they attempt to distort history and accuse the Jewish people of instigating the fight. The contemporary parallel story is the Six-Day War.
This month is the anniversary of a modern day miracle.
Surrounded on all sides and facing annihilation, Israel was heavily outnumbered and outgunned. By the end of the week Israel had tripled the size of its borders. This was the Six-Day War.
In this week’s parshah the Jews engaged in diplomacy and then are attacked by a bordering nation who they then conquer in a fight for survival. Then several year’s later are accused of taking the land away from this nation. What happened in this week’s parshah and haftorah is an exact parallel of what happened in the Six -Day War.
The lesson from this weeks parshah is to be aware of our peoples history. In every generation the Jews are portrayed to be the villain and the aggressor, when in truth we only want to live peacefully. We must be aware of our political heritage and never be apologetic about our right to exist.
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